Blair, Dennis

Born in Kittery , Maine, in the family of Captain Carvel Hall Blair and Abby (née Ansel), a sixth generation naval officer ^[1] . He graduated from the US Naval Academy in 1968, after which he was assigned to the destroyer Tattnall . He also completed an internship at Oxford University , where he specialized in the study of Russia . Subsequently, he held a number of command posts in the National Security Council , was Deputy Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff , Deputy Director of Central Intelligence , Commander of the US Pacific Command . In 2002, he retired from military service and served as president of the Institute for Defense Analysis , taught at the US Army Military College , and was deputy executive director of the National Security Reform Council .

Four times awarded the medal “For Outstanding Service” with oak leaves, the medal “For Excellent Service” , the order “Legion of Honor” , the medal of meritorious service , the medal “For Merit” , the medal “For the Service of National Security” (twice), as well as many others award winning USA, Japan , Republic of Korea , Australia , Thailand and Taiwan .

January 29, 2009 D. Blair was appointed Director of National Intelligence of the United States ^[2] . His work in this post was accompanied by conflicts within the American intelligence community. So, in May 2009, Blair tried to independently appoint intelligence officers as his representatives abroad, while CIA Director Leon Panetta considered this as his own prerogative ^[3] . Blair’s predecessors as National Intelligence Director, D. Negroponte and D. McConnell , were unable to take this intelligence function from the CIA ^[4] . At the end of July 2009, the Senate Special Committee on Intelligence supported Blair, appealing to the CIA leadership with a request to be loyal to Blair’s decision ^[4] .

However, on November 10, 2009, the White House decided in favor of the CIA, giving it the right to continue to appoint an American intelligence resident in every country where it is present. Some intelligence experts believe that this significantly weakens the authority of the director of National Intelligence ^[5] .

At the time of Blair’s leadership, the intelligence community saw events such as the Fort Hood military base massacre (2009) , an attempted terrorist attack on a plane in December 2009, and an attempted terrorist attack on Times Square on May 1, 2010. These events have sharply criticized the activities of the US intelligence community by Congress and public circles, and US President Barack Obama on May 20, 2010 dismissed Blair as director of the National Intelligence ^[6] .

Two days after Blair’s resignation, the New York Times reported citing informed sources in the Obama administration that there was a link between Blair’s resignation and US-French intelligence-sharing talks. In October-December 2009, Blair began negotiations with French intelligence director Bernard Bajole on the conclusion of an agreement between France and the United States, which included the condition that the parties undertake on a reciprocal basis not to conduct reconnaissance against each other, but to conduct from the territories of countries- participants only operations against third countries. In accordance with the proposed treaty, French intelligence should be informed of US operations in France. The draft treaty provided for a more formal option than the Agreement on Radio-Technical and Intelligence Safety Great Britain - USA ^[7] . American officials argue that the draft treaty was rejected by President Obama, and D. Blair’s attempts to lobby the draft became an additional reason for his resignation ^[8] . In turn, the Champs Elysees confirmed that such an agreement was negotiable, adding that “we were not petitioners” in this transaction. French officials further indicated that the draft treaty provided for France’s access to the Global Trade Exchange ^[9] . At the same time, the French representatives described the draft agreement as imperfect, saying that “nothing has changed in our relations” due to the non-conclusion of the agreement and the resignation of Blair ^[10] .

• Blair, Dennis - an article in the Lentapedia . year 2012.
• Biography on pravda.ru